Form W-4 (officially, the "Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate") [1] is an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax form completed by an employee in the United States to indicate his or her tax situation (exemptions, status, etc.) to the employer. The W-4 form tells the employer the correct amount of federal tax to withhold from an employee's paycheck.
The W-4 is based on the idea of "allowances"; the more allowances claimed, the less money the employer withholds for tax purposes. The W-4 Form is usually not sent to the IRS; [2] rather, the employer uses the form in order to calculate how much of an employee's salary is withheld. An employee may claim allowances for oneself, one's spouse, and any dependents, along with other miscellaneous reasons, such as being single with only one job. In the latter case, this creates an oddity in that the employee will have one more exemption on the W-4 than on the 1040 tax return. This is not a tax deduction in itself, but a procedure to prevent under-withholding for those who do not qualify. Nevertheless, it is legal to have "self" and "one job" allowances from the highest paid job, provided that all other jobs have zero allowances.
Each year, the IRS issues tax refunds to tens of millions of Americans. In 2011 alone, the IRS issued refunds to more than 100 million Americans. That means three out of four returns filed for 2011 called for money back. All told, the government sent about $318 billion to taxpayers, with the average refund being around $2,900. Claiming allowances on the W-4 and updating it frequently effectively lets the taxpayer claim refunds ahead of time, by not overpaying in the first place. [3] [4] Over-withholding can occur if, for example, an employee receives a one-time bonus, or only a partial year is worked, as it may only take into account the current paycheck, rather than the year-to-date amount. (I.e., withholding is calculated as if the employee earned this amount every payday on an annual basis.)
The W-4 Form includes a series of worksheets for calculating the number of allowances to claim. One must provide some personal information and report the total allowances and additional withholding amounts on the actual form. The employee must tear off this certificate and hand it to their employer.
One may request an exemption from employer withholding (of income, but not payroll tax) if one had no income tax in the previous year and does not expect to owe any taxes in the current year.
If one works more than a single job or has a working spouse, the IRS recommends claiming all allowances on the W-4 Form for the highest paying job and claiming zero allowances for any other jobs. The IRS also recommends filing a new W-4 Form anytime a major life event occurs. [5] [6]
The W-4 Form itself does not indicate that anticipated losses can also be taken into account. If one expects a deductible loss from a business or rental activity or investment, for example, withholding can be adjusted to account for the resulting reduction in the tax bill.
Tax withholding depends on the employee's personal situation and ideally should be equal to the annual tax due on the Form 1040. When filling out a Form W-4 an employee calculates the number of Form W-4 allowances to claim based on their expected tax filing situation for the year. No interest is paid on over-withholding, but penalties might be imposed for under-withholding. Alternatively, or in addition, the employee can send quarterly estimated tax payments directly to the IRS (Form 1040-ES). Quarterly estimates may be required if the employee has additional income (e.g. investments or self-employment income) not subject to withholding or insufficiently withheld. Quarterly payments can also be required for a few years as a penalty for under withholding more than a nominal amount. There are specialized versions of the W-4 Form for other types of payment; for example, W-4P for pensions, and the voluntary W-4V for certain government payments such as unemployment compensation. [7] [8]
Form 1040, officially, the U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, is an IRS tax form used for personal federal income tax returns filed by United States residents. The form calculates the total taxable income of the taxpayer and determines how much is to be paid to or refunded by the government.
The United States has separate federal, state, and local governments with taxes imposed at each of these levels. Taxes are levied on income, payroll, property, sales, capital gains, dividends, imports, estates and gifts, as well as various fees. In 2020, taxes collected by federal, state, and local governments amounted to 25.5% of GDP, below the OECD average of 33.5% of GDP.
A tax credit is a tax incentive which allows certain taxpayers to subtract the amount of the credit they have accrued from the total they owe the state. It may also be a credit granted in recognition of taxes already paid or a form of state "discount" applied in certain cases. Another way to think of a tax credit is as a rebate.
A pay-as-you-earn tax (PAYE), or pay-as-you-go (PAYG) in Australia, is a withholding of taxes on income payments to employees. Amounts withheld are treated as advance payments of income tax due. They are refundable to the extent they exceed tax as determined on tax returns. PAYE may include withholding the employee portion of insurance contributions or similar social benefit taxes. In most countries, they are determined by employers but subject to government review. PAYE is deducted from each paycheck by the employer and must be remitted promptly to the government. Most countries refer to income tax withholding by other terms, including pay-as-you-go tax.
Payroll taxes are taxes imposed on employers or employees, and are usually calculated as a percentage of the salaries that employers pay their employees. By law, some payroll taxes are the responsibility of the employee and others fall on the employer, but almost all economists agree that the true economic incidence of a payroll tax is unaffected by this distinction, and falls largely or entirely on workers in the form of lower wages. Because payroll taxes fall exclusively on wages and not on returns to financial or physical investments, payroll taxes may contribute to underinvestment in human capital, such as higher education.
Tax brackets are the divisions at which tax rates change in a progressive tax system. Essentially, tax brackets are the cutoff values for taxable income—income past a certain point is taxed at a higher rate.
Three key types of withholding tax are imposed at various levels in the United States:
A tax refund or tax rebate is a payment to the taxpayer due to the taxpayer having paid more tax than they owed.
Form W-2 is an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax form used in the United States to report wages paid to employees and the taxes withheld from them. Employers must complete a Form W-2 for each employee to whom they pay a salary, wage, or other compensation as part of the employment relationship. An employer must mail out the Form W-2 to employees on or before January 31 of any year in which an employment relationship existed and which was not contractually independent. This deadline gives these taxpayers about 2 months to prepare their returns before the April 15 income tax due date. The form is also used to report FICA taxes to the Social Security Administration. Form W-2 along with Form W-3 generally must be filed by the employer with the Social Security Administration by the end of February following employment the previous year. Relevant amounts on Form W-2 are reported by the Social Security Administration to the Internal Revenue Service. In US territories, the W-2 is issued with a two letter territory code, such as W-2GU for Guam. Corrections can be filed using Form W-2c.
Tax withholding, also known as tax retention, pay-as-you-earn tax or tax deduction at source, is income tax paid to the government by the payer of the income rather than by the recipient of the income. The tax is thus withheld or deducted from the income due to the recipient. In most jurisdictions, tax withholding applies to employment income. Many jurisdictions also require withholding taxes on payments of interest or dividends. In most jurisdictions, there are additional tax withholding obligations if the recipient of the income is resident in a different jurisdiction, and in those circumstances withholding tax sometimes applies to royalties, rent or even the sale of real estate. Governments use tax withholding as a means to combat tax evasion, and sometimes impose additional tax withholding requirements if the recipient has been delinquent in filing tax returns, or in industries where tax evasion is perceived to be common.
The United States federal government and most state governments impose an income tax. They are determined by applying a tax rate, which may increase as income increases, to taxable income, which is the total income less allowable deductions. Income is broadly defined. Individuals and corporations are directly taxable, and estates and trusts may be taxable on undistributed income. Partnerships are not taxed, but their partners are taxed on their shares of partnership income. Residents and citizens are taxed on worldwide income, while nonresidents are taxed only on income within the jurisdiction. Several types of credits reduce tax, and some types of credits may exceed tax before credits. Most business expenses are deductible. Individuals may deduct certain personal expenses, including home mortgage interest, state taxes, contributions to charity, and some other items. Some deductions are subject to limits, and an Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) applies at the federal and some state levels.
Form W-9 is used in the United States income tax system by a third party who must file an information return with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It requests the name, address, and taxpayer identification information of a taxpayer.
For the Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) tax or Social Security tax in the United States, the Social Security Wage Base (SSWB) is the maximum earned gross income or upper threshold on which a wage earner's Social Security tax may be imposed. The Social Security tax is one component of the Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax (FICA) and Self-employment tax, the other component being the Medicare tax. It is also the maximum amount of covered wages that are taken into account when average earnings are calculated in order to determine a worker's Social Security benefit.
In tax administration in the United States, backup withholding is the sending of a portion of a payment to a tax authority instead of to the payee. This applies to the US IRS and the tax authorities of some states. For the IRS, it applies to some payments reported on Form 1099 which must be submitted to the IRS by financial institutions and businesses making certain income payments. Factors that necessitate backup withholding include:
The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) uses forms for taxpayers and tax-exempt organizations to report financial information, such as to report income, calculate taxes to be paid to the federal government, and disclose other information as required by the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). There are over 800 various forms and schedules. Other tax forms in the United States are filed with state and local governments.
A tax return is the completion of documentation that calculates an entity or individual's income earned and the amount of taxes to be paid to the government or government organizations or, potentially, back to the taxpayer.
In the United States, the combination of payroll taxes withheld from a household employee and the employment taxes paid by their employer are commonly referred to as the nanny tax. Under US law, any family or individual that pays a household employee more than a certain dollar amount per year must withhold and pay Social Security and Medicare taxes, also known as FICA. The law mandates that all domestic workers, such as cooks, nannies, housekeepers and gardeners, are subject to the nanny tax. Federal unemployment insurance taxes must also be paid if the household pays any number of employees a total of $1,000 or more in a calendar quarter. State unemployment insurance taxes have the same requirement with the exceptions of California ($750), New York ($500), and Washington, D.C. ($500), which have lower thresholds.
In the United States, Form 1099-MISC is a variant of Form 1099 used to report miscellaneous income. One notable use of Form 1099-MISC was to report amounts paid by a business to a non-corporate US resident independent contractor for services, but starting tax year 2020, this use was moved to the separate Form 1099-NEC. The ubiquity of the form has also led to use of the phrase "1099 workers" or "the 1099 economy" to refer to the independent contractors themselves. Other uses of Form 1099-MISC include rental income, royalties, and Native American gaming profits.
Forms 1042, 1042-S and 1042-T are United States Internal Revenue Service tax forms dealing with payments to foreign persons, including nonresident aliens, foreign partnerships, foreign corporations, foreign estates, and foreign trusts.
In the United States, Form 1099-R is a variant of Form 1099 used for reporting on distributions from pensions, annuities, retirement or profit sharing plans, IRAs, charitable gift annuities and Insurance Contracts. Form 1099-R is filed for each person who has received a distribution of $10 or more from any of the above.
You are now required to submit the Forms W-4 to IRS only if directed to do so in a written notice or pursuant to specified criteria set forth in future published guidance.
